The Passover (NKJV)

I t was a spring evening in San Francisco. A meeting for Jews and Gentiles had just been thrown open for discussion. An elderly Jewish gentleman had taken the floor. “This is Passover week, my Jewish brethren, and as I sat here I was thinking how you will be observing it. You will have to put away all leaven from your houses; you will eat matzoth and the roasted lamb; you will attend the synagogue and carry out the ritual and direction of the Talmud. He continued: “But you forget, my brethren, that you have everything except that which Jehovah required first of all. He did not say, ‘When I see the leaven put away, or when I see you eat the matzoth or the roasted lamb, or go to the synagogue.’ His word was, ‘When I see the blood I will pass over you.’ Ah, my brethren, you cannot substitute anything for this. You must have blood, blood, BLOOD!” The requirement of Jehovah referred to by the gentleman is in connection with the deliverance of the Israelites as recorded in Exodus 11 and 12. Nothing but the blood of a lamb without blemish sprinkled on the lintel and doorposts of the house could save the firstborn from death. To the natural mind, those blood marks signified nothing; to the eye of faith they meant everything, for God had said: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” At midnight the test came. Jehovah visited the land of Egypt. Upon every house where there was no blood sprinkled, judgment was executed. The firstborn was slain, and there was a great cry in Egypt. Every house that had the blood sprinkled upon it, He passed by. Why did Jehovah pass over Israel? Because the judgment they deserved had already been executed upon them in the object of their substitute—the slain lamb. The blood sprinkled was a sign of their faithful obedience to Jehovah’s command. It mattered not that some among the Egyptians were moral and upright before their fellow-man. In God’s sight they were sinners and needed divinely-appointed protection. God looked for the blood, and not finding it, executed His just decree. It mattered not if any firstborn of the Israelites were great sinners. God saw the sprinkled blood, and therefore passed them by. The blood, or the absence of it, made all the difference, and guided the Lord in His righteous judgment that night. These are solemn realities recorded in the Word of God for the warning and instruction of people—both Jews and Gentiles—in the world today. God’s principles do not change. The ground on which He saves a sinner is always the same. The lamb in Exodus 12 is a picture—a type—of the Lamb that God, in His love, provided to make a way of deliverance from the judgment we all deserve because of our sins (Romans 3:23). “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), exclaimed John the Baptist as he heralded the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ on the scene of His ministry. “Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7), exclaimed Paul. God had declared “It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11), and “without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). Through John He tells us: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Through Peter He says man is redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). Thus there is deliverance from sin and judgment only through the blood of Jesus. It is not when God sees your moral and upright life; nor your faithful religious functions; nor your baptism; nor your charitable works to fellowman, but “When I see the BLOOD.” When He sees that you have taken refuge beneath the blood of Jesus, in repentance accepting His guilty verdict because of your sin, and in faith accepting His provision of the blood of Jesus shed for you: then, and then alone, will He pass over you in the hour of judgment. Friend, make Christ your Lamb today! Judgment is coming. God now commands you to repent. Will you not thankfully receive Him as your living, loving Redeemer who shed His blood for you? Claim right now the promise in John 5:24: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”